Impact factor in AIDS and other infectious diseases.

: The impact factor (IF) is the most accurate system currently available for objectively evaluating the scientific productivity of individual researchers and institutions. It represents the quality level of a periodical and, at the same time, is a convenient reference parameter for the researcher to use in choosing an appropriate journal before submitting his own work for consideration. From this standpoint, we conducted an analysis of periodicals with the highest IF, including those strictly related to infectious diseases and HIV/AIDS, specialty journals, and general medicine reviews. This was done in order to determine just how much of these journals' total 1998 production consisted of articles concerning HIV infection and AIDS. This examination, conducted through a search of the MEDLINE database, predictably revealed greater interest in the HIV/AIDS topic among journals with the highest IF that focus on infectious diseases, though the same interest revealed when examining specialty journals and general medicine periodicals was not negligible.